Hue And Cry

Alongside Wet Wet Wet, Texas, and Deacon Blue, blue eyed soul-pop siblings Hue & Cry were one of the most successful acts to emerge from the Scottish music scene that dominated the charts in the late '80s. The duo from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire decided to start making music together in 1983, when Pat Kane was about to graduate from university and brother Greg was still at school. After releasing their first single, "Here Comes Everybody," through small Glasgow label Stampede in 1984, they signed to Virgin Records subsidiary Circa, where they released debut album Seduced and Abandoned, and scored their biggest hit, "Labour of Love," three years later. Top Ten albums Remote (1988), Bitter Suite (1989), and Stars Crash Down (1991) followed, but by the time of 1992's Truth & Love, released through their own short-lived Fidelity label, their star had started to wane, and after 1993's Best Of, the pair never charted again. Free from their commercial constraints, they released a series of experimental albums throughout the '90s, including a collaboration with composer Richard Niles (1994's Showtime!), the jazz-based Piano & Voice (1995) and JazzNotJazz (1996), and 1999's Next Move, which incorporated drum 'n' bass, R&B, and Latin funk. In 2005, they briefly returned to the mainstream when they lost out to Shakin' Stevens in the final of ITV pop star comeback contest Hit Me Baby One More Time. The resulting exposure earned them support slots with Jamie Cullum and Al Green, and in 2008 they released their first studio album in nine years, Open Soul, which was followed a year later by Xmasday. ~ Jon O'Brien